A triathlon consists of 4 disciplines: swim, bike, run, and transitions. Most frequently, we solely spend time coaching on three of these disciplines. You practice hours on finish meticulously fine-tuning our cardiovascular engines to provide the outcomes we need. What about your transitions? Maybe you will have by no means given a lot thought to this self-discipline as a result of the best positive factors are to be made within the pool, on the street, or on the paths. Suppose again to a race the place you have been edged out by a competitor on the line, or misplaced your ticket to Kona by 10 seconds in your age group. You discover that your competitor accomplished T1 and T2 a full:20 quicker than you. Had you cleaned up your transitions that podium place might have been yours.
“I’ve really received a race as a result of I used to be quicker in transition than the lady who got here in second.”
Heather Jackson
What precisely is a transition?
In a triathlon, transitions in a race are both: T1 or T2. T1 refers back to the transition from the swim to the bike portion of the race. An athlete will exit the swim, run to the transition space the place the bike is staged, after which exit via the “bike out,” and onto the course. The second transition, T2, refers back to the bike to run portion of the race. Athletes will dismount their bike on the “dismount line,” then proceed to run their bike via the transition space to the place their bike was racked beforehand. As soon as athletes discover themselves within the appropriate place, they’ll rack their bike, take away their helmet, and proceed to put their run footwear on and take off to the run course.
Beneath we will evaluate some fast suggestions and tips to make sure your subsequent transition is one of the best one but:
T1: Relying on the temperature of water you could end up racing in a wetsuit, which would require a bit extra time to take away, however you’ve ready for this, don’t panic. Recommendation: pour some child oil down your wetsuit after you will have it on and zipped for fast removing over the hips and knees in T1. You should use some cooking oil or physique glide round your joints to assist in the event you’re not seeking to grow to be an oil slick! As you exit the swim, instantly start to seize your wetsuit zipper and unzip the wetsuit mid-run, by the point you attain the transition zone, it’s best to have the wetsuit down round your hips prepared for full removing as soon as at your designated racking zone.
If racing with sun shades, it’s quickest to have them connected to a water bottle or aero bottle mount that’s already on the bike. This decreases time in transition, and you may place them in your face as soon as mounted and using your bike! Merely place a rubber band round a bottle and slide one of many ear socks via the band to make sure they don’t slip! When coping with your helmet, be sure you have the buckles already undone and the interior retention system open to the widest setting in an effort to tighten it as soon as mounted. If in case you have this set tightly, it will likely be tough to put it in your head in a single swift transfer!
Lastly, it might be daunting, particularly if you’re new to triathlon, however studying methods to mount your bike along with your footwear already clipped in will prevent time for certain! Be sure you follow your mounts previous to the race, and when the race comes take a deep breath and give attention to the method. Don’t stress over time the primary few tries, the velocity will come later!
T2: When approaching transition, be sure you time if you take your toes out: too early and also you’ll be pedaling on prime of your footwear too lengthy. Too late and also you’ll rapidly understand you’re on the dismount line with one foot nonetheless connected to the bike! Take a deep breath and chill out when dismounting your bike, you wish to be fast, however you additionally wish to be easy and exact.
Whether or not you race with socks for the run or not will rely completely on the athlete and the race distance. For occasion distances corresponding to a dash or Olympic, most triathletes don’t run with socks for the race. You’ll be able to follow this previous to see if it should be just right for you. For half ironman and full ironman distances, it might most likely be finest to make sure you take time to put on socks as your toes may very well be worse for put on if you end! On the subject of footwear, guarantee you will have a fast tie shoelace system put in like a bungee system. Tip: Putting child powder across the opening and tongue of the shoe will enable your foot to rapidly slide into the run shoe!
Some of the vital points of transitions for racing is making certain you will have your knowledge up and working if you start the subsequent phase of your race. There are a lot of multisport watches available on the market that may measure swimming, biking, and working paces/distances: the one problem is that they require the consumer to point that the transition to a distinct sport has been made which prices time.
Enter: ELEMNT RIVAL. The RIVAL Multisport Watch headlines with the Touchless Transition characteristic that could be a game-changer in racing and coaching. The RIVAL makes use of a mixture of sensors together with the accelerometer, barometer, and a proprietary algorithm to find out which exercise you’re performing and transitions you thru the completely different legs. You solely should hit the beginning button when the triathlon begins, after which once more to cease if you cross the end line. RIVAL additionally provides Multisport Handover. With this, a suitable ELEMNT Bike Pc can seamlessly join and show related knowledge throughout a multisport exercise out of your RIVAL. This could allow the bike laptop to indicate the cumulative time and distance of the exercise on the pc alongside the opposite knowledge fields set by your self on the pc.
The ELEMNT RIVAL makes transitions a breeze, making certain your entire knowledge shall be recorded with nothing greater than a begin/cease button. When the second’s depend, be certain you will have the correct setup to propel you to the outcomes you need to obtain.